David Aitken

It's just a graphical representation. I don't think Jagdpanzer IV's have a hatch for the driver, do they? David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

Elijah Meeks wrote: > I'm very happy with my Tank/Squad compare and contrast Your example is of simple incremental improvement. Your squad suggestion is a matter of totally reworking the game's code to be 100 times more complex. > However, the choice isn't between total realism and total abstraction. You can have a mid-point The fact is, all of Combat Mission is abstracted. It's just one big abstraction. At this stage, there's no point in trying to model all the men of a squad, because it's a level of realism which is currently both unfeasible and inappropriate. The three-man squad looks like the most unrealistic thing on the battlefield, but it's not. It's of an equal level of realism to everything else. David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

Elijah Meeks wrote: > I don't think your arguments are valid. I've said this before, but - aren't you lucky - I'm going to say it again. Combat Mission does not model individual men. It averages out the men in a squad. The three-man graphic you see is a placeholder for the squad, it is not a representation of three men. If all 8-12 men were modelled, at this stage they would all be doing exactly the same thing, which would (1) be a total waste of programming time, and (2) look pretty strange. For example, in many cases you'd have guys hanging out of a building. The only way to model all the men and still make sense, would be to model the behaviour of every single man. When your squad runs across the road, it doesn't just run across in a bunch - it moves across tactically, a few men at a time. The fact that you do not see this makes sense with a three-man placeholder, but if you had ten men, seeing them all running across the road in a bunch wouldn't make any sense at all. The programming time and processor power required for full squad representation is not just in showing models of all the men - it's in creating the behaviour to back it up. At the moment this is unfeasible. But more importantly, Combat Mission is a squad-level game. It would make as much sense to represent each squad with a counter, because this is effectively what you see - a three-man-shaped counter, which performs various actions to represent what the squad is doing. Full-squad representation is outwith Combat Mission's scope. Even if it were feasible, that would not make it appropriate. David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

They're more for graphical purposes than historical realism - infantry squads didn't shoot tracer from their rifles. It's just to let you know who's firing. David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

I think it makes sense to restrict you. Otherwise you'd have a mix of Elite and Green troops ALL the time. You'd end up always picking Elite tanks, for example, with a low-quality infantry screen. The bracketing makes for greater variation between battles. It's not the case that, when you go for high-quality troops, you're forced to choose all Elites. You have a choice of Veterans, Crack or Elite, so you can still mix - but it's generally high-quality. David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

Be careful to distinguish between snipers and sharpshooters. Read what Steve said here. David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

Read these threads. Do it. #'s of soldiers in future CM titles - will modern tech help? men flying from explosions An interesting idea for squad representation! David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

Juardis wrote: > (yes, I'm talking men, not machines) Ummm... the only men that can become immobilised, are MG teams and such who are down to one man. How would you expect rubble to immobilise someone? David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

groundpounder wrote: > I constructed "Victory in the Vineyards". Hi Terry - I don't know where the space came from, but I don't think you need to worry about it. The filename should be the same on the Mac and PC, unless it's over 31 characters, when the Mac will shorten it. There are various ways a filename could be inadvertantly changed, but that's not your fault. David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

In case you're wondering, a building still provides good cover after it collapses. The rubble looks flat, but it's actually a very good place to hide. David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

This from an e-mail to Ales: The file has a space at the end of its name. Combat Mission will recognise a scenario file if either (1) it has the Mac OS creator info, or (2) it has a .cmb extension. This scenario has the latter, but there's a space after, which messes things up - ie. "Victory in the Vineyards.cmb " rather than "Victory in the Vineyards.cmb". Remove the space and it should work. David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

SPOILER X X X X X Von Brizee wrote: > Maybe the Tiger needs more AP ammo? That was deliberate - it puts more emphasis on the Marder, and besides that, the British flank is exposed. David X X X X X ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

> I have system 9.03 and the information on the memory does not exist in my info. Only file size.(Can not change amount of memory like in system 7 or 8) The Info window is divided in OS 9. There is a menu which you use to switch between General Information, Sharing and Memory. Are you running the game from the CD, or is it fully installed to your hard disc? David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

CavScout wrote: > The German military overall was very short on motor vehicle transport. I did consider that, actually - but (I won't post a spoiler here) there aren't that many trucks. Certainly not half as many as you'd need to mount all the Germans in the scenario. David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

Madpad wrote: > but does Combat Mission actually model enemy units being mis-identified Yes. ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

Have you actually given CM more memory? On the Mac it doesn't matter how much memory you have - you've got to specify exactly how much memory each application uses. So you could have a gigabyte of RAM, but CM would still only use 45Mb. David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

Now now Joe, put those smilies away! We can't have you going around scaring newcomers like that. Come back when you find something that'll REALLY scare 'em! David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

Panzerschrec wrote: > I wont be playing online for a couple of months (I just bought a new home - no DSL/cable modem access) The current incarnation of 'online' play is Play By E-Mail (PBEM), which doesn't require a high-bandwidth connection. David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

If the demo was okay, and the problem exists on both RAVE and Voodoo, it doesn't sound like a driver problem. Have you guys done a full install onto your hard disc, or are you running from the CD? David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

pereciu wrote: > I enjoyed every feature! Glad to hear it! David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

Hi Ales - Maybe the maps you can't open need more memory. Depending on how much RAM your computer has, you may be able to give Combat Mission more space to work with. If you're not sure how to do this: First, quit all applications, go to the Apple Menu and select 'About This Computer'. It will tell you how much unused memory you have. Then go to the Combat Mission application and Get Info for it (click on it and press Command-I). This will tell you how much memory CM is using. If the memory CM is using, is a lot less than the amount of unused memory, you can give CM more. It is best to leave 10 or 20 megabytes free, because CM's graphics are drawn by the System software. Hope this helps! David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

Das Hamstertruppen sagt: Zu ersten blicke, schnell! [This message has been edited by David Aitken (edited 08-29-2000).]

Tiger wrote: > -Hundminen, the final is already out. Yeah, well he posted that last year. David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

LMG42s are only modelled in Combat Mission because they accompanied AT batteries and the like. Squads have their own MGs, and only the HMG42 was used in a support role. David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

This issue has already been discussed. Go here, and scroll to the bottom of the page. It's got pictures an' everything! David ------------------ There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT